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For this blog:

This blog is about Our month long trip to Spain with our kids.  

The photos are scanned from our albums and postcards and other documents and was put together several years after the trip.  The photographs were from film instead of digital shots.  The quality of the photos has degraded somewhat with some grainy images.  We were unable to find the old photos from some of the places and activities we visited on the trip and mentioned in the blog. 

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Before the trip - Emmanuelle Letters

 Letters to and from Emmanuelle before our visit on this trip.

Friday and Saturday, June 23 and 24 Flying to Spain

Left home at 6:00 am for our flight to Dulles, then on to Madrid.  No one slept on the plane, but everyone was well behaved.  Arrived in Madrid.  

Josh conked out immediately on the taxi ride to the train station.  The train station was spectacular, with a huge greenhouse type roof and a tropical garden inside.  

We had vouchers for the train tickets to Seville that we had booked in advance.  However, the tickets needed to be gotten elsewhere, so Mary and Jessica took a taxi to retrieve them.  Everyone has been really helpful – a lady at the airport told us which station to go to for the tickets.

Jessica, who took some Spanish in school, has been doing great at translating for us – taxi drivers, waiters, station attendants, etc.

The train ride was great - very smooth, but a little chilly.  The countryside on the train ride to Seville reminded us of California with scrub brush and farms in the flat lands and rolling chaparral hills.  Biggest difference was the occasional hill topped with a castle ruin. 

2.5 hour train ride – Josh slept the whole way.  

There was no place to get rooms at the train station, so we took a taxi to the tourist information place.  We got a map; however, the information center was closing and couldn’t help us finding with a room.  

The Tourist Information Building

However, we found a hotel by using a girl hawking in front of the tourist office.  She led us to the hotel (Hostal Sierpas).  Good price, nice location, lots of narrow winding streets.  Very close to the cathedral.  

We went out to an early dinner at a sidewalk café.  Feeding Josh may be a challenge.  The milk was warm and the hamburger patty was weird.  

We all crashed early, around 5:30 pm.

Sunday June 25 - Seville

Everyone slept at least 12 hours.  Eventually  we were all up and out for breakfast around 9:00.  

Some photos (and postcards) of beautiful Sevilla.

Explored the Alcazar castle and gardens.  The Alcazar is from the Moorish period in Spain the it showed in the architecture and gardens.

Many courtyards.

Lots of tile and beautiful details. 

The gardens were beautiful, although most of the fountains were dry.  

Afterwards we left the kids in the hotel and Paul and Mary walked the maze of streets in the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

We all took a short nap, then went to the cathedral – 700 years old, 4th largest in the word.  It is the largest gothic Catholic cathedral.  

Views from the cathedral tower. 

Both kids seemed to find it interesting, taking the time to consult maps and check out everything.  It was hot and muggy.

Then we walked down to a Baskin Robbins and had ice cream followed by row boats on the moat at Plaza de Espana.  

Josh rowed a lot.  We took a carriage ride through the Parque de Maria Luisa and back to the cathedral.  Great way to see the city, but there are so many horses that it smelled in places. 

The Torre de Oro (Tower of Gold).

After dinner, Mary and Paul took a long walk during the nice night.  Perfect ending of a wonder first day in Spain.